1987 Tour de France
The 74th Tour de France took place from 1 July to 26 July 1987 and led over 25 stages and a total of 4231 km. It was the last staging of the Tour de France, which was over 4000 km long. Stephen Roche became the first Irishman the overall standings of the Tour. In the same year he also won the victory at the Giro d' Italia and the road bike World Cup, thus achieving the only cyclist next to Eddy Merckx this rare triple. It was attended by 207 racers participated in the tour, of which 135 were classified.
Race course
The race started at the 750th anniversary of Berlin in the western part of the city. After the prologue, a short stage within the city or sector boundary and a team time trial of the Tour entourage was flown to Karlsruhe, where a further two stages took place on German soil. After the French Hexagon is frequented counterclockwise.
The two protagonists of the last two sweeps in 1985 and 1986 did not participate: Bernard Hinault had ended his career, Greg LeMond was seriously injured in a hunting accident in America.
The tour in 1987 was changeable and exciting: The yellow jersey changed nine times, a record of the Tour 's history. At the end of the race, the third-placed Jean -François Bernard had just over two minutes behind, where he lost to the 19th stage because of a defect four minutes and so his yellow jersey and probably also the tour. Between the winner and the runner-up Stephen Roche Pedro Delgado were even just 40 seconds - the drittknappste starting the tour at all. Roche overtook the Spaniard here only by the final time trial.
The German Rolf Golz won a stage in his first Tour.